On Dec. 22, a special guest visited English teacher Joanne Reynolds’ classes. Penny Clarke, an accomplished lawyer and mother of WJ freshman Sabrina Clarke, spoke about her life as an African-American woman, as Reynolds thought it would relate to her class discussion of To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee.

“As a black woman, and a lawyer, she was able to give [the class] some insight on the flaws in the legal system that still exist,” said Reynolds. “Also, her personal story on black issues ties into the Tom Robinson case.”

Clarke was born on Dec. 5, 1969 in Liberia, and lived there until she graduated from high school at the age of 16. For her, it was easy to adjust to the U.S. because life in Liberia was similar and had the same school system. The difference is, in Liberia, after high school, students have a choice. They can go to a college in Liberia and then come to America, or they can opt out of college and come to America immediately.

According to Clarke, Liberia is a very Americanized country. Liberia was founded by freed African-American slaves who took some of their American culture with them when they emigrated, so it is not very different from the U.S.

When she moved to the U.S., Clarke attended Suffolk Law School in Boston where she had no encounters with racism. She then moved to Atlanta with her two kids in 2001, where she had a different experience.

“[When I moved] out to Atlanta, [it] was a big culture shock,” said Clarke. “The racism was huge.”

She recalls being stopped several times by the police in her neighborhood for “ridiculous” reasons, even though in actuality she was stopped due to her African-American descent and the fact that her neighborhood was not a place where the police thought black people should live.

After nine years of  life in Atlanta, Clarke found a job in Washington D.C. and moved to Maryland in 2010, where she currently resides.

In addition to telling her story to the class, Clarke also came to discuss African-American life in America. She said that when she came to the U.S., she didn’t know much about African-American life here, so she wanted to learn more.

“I think the most important event in modern black history is the Civil Rights movement,” said Clarke. She thinks this because the movement allowed African-Americans gain the respect they deserved and the equality for which they had been waiting.

Clarke doesn’t have much expertise on African-American history but she did take classes to find out more. She wanted to become more educated on the subject.

Reynolds said she would like to have a speaker like Clarke come speak to the class every year.

“I think that students should see that these injustices aren’t behind us,” said Reynolds.

Clarke is very happy with American life today. She explained that life would not be the same if African-American history had panned out in any other way.

“I have learned to appreciate why the stances that were taken, were taken,” said Clarke.